Remembrance - by Jeannine Engelbretson Windt

Valeria’s brother, Kenneth, was my dad and she has always been known to her nieces and nephews as “Aunt Honey”.  Aunt Honey and Uncle Sohei were famous for sending us unique Christmas gifts and were always the ones we opened first.  For my daughter’s first Christmas, they gave her and her dad matching Diana Nyad marathon swim goggles, she was 5 months old.  They gave my Dad a “Grandpa” action figure.  When my stepdaughter Jennifer graduated from law school, they sent her a beautiful pen as a gift and when she wrote to thank them she mentioned she didn’t want to use it as she was afraid she might lose it, so for Christmas that year, they gave her a Snoopy pen. 

We have a collection of beautiful books from them that range from cowboy boots to feng shui, the topic was always relative to whatever was going on in our lives at the time.  We also have a file at home labeled “Aunt Honey and Uncle Sohei”.  In it are a collection of cards and letters we’ve received over the years that included personalized drawings, poems, and bits of insight.  The drawings of the cats are a personal favorite. 

We were able to visit them in New York many years ago.  When we got off the elevator in the lobby of our hotel, they were waiting for us holding up a sign that said, “Jim and Jeannine”.  They took us to The Stage Deli where we had the biggest sandwiches in the world but they were prepared and had brought with them a Tupperware container to take home the leftovers.  Uncle Sohei always crossed the street holding his hand out in front of us to make sure the crazy taxi drivers didn’t run us over. 

A few years ago, Jim and I drove from California to Florida and sent them a post card from almost every stop we made.  This was a very small attempt to thank them for being so thoughtful to our family.

Uncle Sohei was a true renaissance man. 

Jeannine Engelbretson Windt